May 2010 Magazine

Holy Trinity Dunfermline

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Holy Trinity Church, Dunfermline with St Margaret’s, Rosyth

Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane

Bishop The Rt Revd David Chillingworth 28a Balhouse Street Perth PH1 5HJ

01738 643000 Rector Rev'd Tim Bennison The Rectory, 17 Ardeer Place Dunfermline KY11 4YX 01383 720532

mobile (07735 368483) Email: rector@holytrinitychurch.org.uk

Retired Assistant Priest The Revd Ross Kennedy 12 Calaisburn Place Dunfermline KY11 4RD 01383 625887 Wardens Rector’s Warden Brendan Grimley People’s Warden Ken Spink Services: Sunday: Eucharists at 8am & 11am Young Church at 11am Monday - Thursday Morning Prayer at 8am Thursday: Eucharist at 10.15am

Would you like to contribute to the Magazine. Please send any HT news or reports to the Editor; at jack.wardell@btinternet.com

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Pebbles on the Shore Random Reflections

from the Rector Cogito ergo sum! I think, therefore, I am! I can’t help thinking that, of late, Pebbles on the Shore, ‘random thoughts from the Rector’ has started to go the way of all Rectors’ letters in the Parish Newsletter and become a little too sermonic in the last few issues. And so, this month I want to eschew all that, and return to the original ethos, or founding principle, of Pebbles on the Shore – the chaos of my random thoughts. So, this month, I muse, in a somewhat chaotic way on the meaning of life and the reason for our existence. For many people, of course, life is just life, and they get on with it without thinking too hard. For others, and I include myself in this category, the mere fact of life entails an agonising, exhausting, confusing and, ultimately, unsuccessful imperative to make sense of it all. Why are we here? What’s it all for? What’s the point? For me, dwelling on those questions and trying to find answers leads my thoughts into contradiction and chaos rather more often than I would like. So, with apologies for the madness to

follow, here we go: Cogito ergo sum! I think, therefore, I am! Am I? If I am, what am I? Do I have to be what I am? Could I be something else? In the words of a seventies song by the Electric Light Orchestra called Wild West Hero, ‘sometimes I look up high and then I think there might just be another life away from all we know - that’s where I want to go, out on the wild side, and I wish I was a wild west hero!’ Maybe there is! Maybe there could be! One day I might go in search of that ‘other life’ But what will it be like? A dream life? a Utopia? Or pretty much like this - the same stress and strains, the same irritation, the same joys and the same laughter, only different? The grass is always greener after all! And where is this wonderful ‘other’ life to be

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found? Is it ‘up there’ in heaven? Is it over the seas? Is it on Mars?! Is there an answer? If it exists, we’d better find it quick because, in the words of another seventies song by the Alan Parsons Project, ‘Time is flowing like a river’ and soon we’ll be ‘Old and Wise’ - also an Alan Parsons Project Song! The trouble is, we always seem to be looking in the wrong place - and perhaps the search is futile. In the words of Meatloaf, ‘You’ll never find your gold on a sandy beach, you’ll never drill for oil on a city street.’ And so, searching searching, onwards, onwards, tying our minds in knots, bamboozling our brains - headless chickens and all that - all is confusion, all is madness! And in the words of another song, ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’.

When will we learn? When will the truth dawn on us? What is truth anyway? Is there such a thing? Is my truth your truth? Is my world your world? Who knows? Do we all see the same or do we just see what we want to see? Where is our Eldorado, our crock of gold?

Perhaps it’s time to wise-up – time to avert our gaze from the green grass out there - to forget the questions, to give-up the distortions of our minds. Maybe the answer is nearer to home, maybe it lies within ourselves. Maybe truth is only to be found in the depths of our souls - in the inner echelons of our collective psyche. Perhaps there we will come face to face with the beauty of the universe and the answers to our questions - deep within ourselves. Or perhaps not! Who knows? Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am!

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March 2010 Peter Hutchings At the end of March the income was £ 31,541 and the expenditure £ 29,772. The retiring collection on the 25 April was in aid of 'Pets as Therapy' and raised £ 47.10 The Rector’s Fund is for the needy of the parish. The current total to hand is £ 280

Church Boiler The boiler that keeps us warm on Sundays is now beyond repair and has to be replaced this summer. The cost of a new boiler is £6,000 and the Vestry would be grateful if you would con-sider making a donation towards the cost. There are 120 families in the congregation and if each family donated £50 this would pay for the new central heating boiler.

If you are able to make a donation, of whatever value, please place it in a Gift Aid Envelope and mark the envelope 'Heating'. I will keep you advised in the magazine of the number of donations and their total value. Thank You.

If anyone would like to know more about Gift Aid or about other ways of contributing to the Church please speak to the Treasurer, Peter Hutchings or to Peter Hand.

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Your Oasis Kathryn Price (URC minister in Dunfermline and Coaltown of Bal-gonie) writes: In the centre of Dunfermline, the ancient royal capital of Scot-land, there is new shopping centre, called The Kingsgate. Tucked in amongst the big chains and still-empty units is a place called Your Oasis. At first glance it looks just like another café – tables and chairs, a couple of comfy sofas, people eating and drinking. But step inside, and it be-comes clear that there is something different going on here. There is no till or cash register – the coffee and tea are on a side ta-ble for visitors to help themselves. There’s no food for sale either, but folk bring in their packed or bought lunches to eat in peace and comfort. There are no staff watching, ready to pounce – volunteers, identified by their green badges, are there to welcome, sit down and chat or leave you alone in peace. You could find a partner and play a game of chess, read the daily papers on the coffee table, pick out a book from bookshelves, look for information from the well-stocked rack, read the notices on the wall. But what really marks this place out is the small area at the back that is slightly more private, call the Quiet Centre, where you could go to pray. The visitors are a cross-section of the town’s population: shopwork-ers and school students come in to eat their lunch; mothers with small children in buggies take a rest from shopping, as do older folk with trolleys; care workers bring their people in to spend time where they do not feel pressured to leave quickly; there are people with problems, looking for a friendly face and someone to talk to and oth-ers who simply want a few minutes peace and quiet in a busy day. All the volunteers are members of local churches and often call in on

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their ‘days off’ with friends; and other church folk come in too. The place is the inspiration of town centre chaplain Pat Carrigan. Pat is a lay Benedictine and former police officer in the town, who has combined both aspects of his life in a new ministry for Dunferm-line. In nearly two years he has built up relationships with the civic authorities and the traders, which led to the Kingsgate management offering the empty unit as a three-month experiment, with the poten-tial for it to continue if successful. ‘The idea was to have a place where people could meet friends, create an informal staffroom, or just chill out – somewhere to escape from the stresses of the day,’ he says. ‘We have information about churches and are happy to talk about faith matters, but only if asked.’ It’s not just church information that is available. Leaflets and posters advertise the many voluntary and community groups that offer help and support. Victim Support has asked to have a weekly time for drop-in conversations and Dunfermline Advocacy Initiative, working with adults with learning difficulties, has had a special information day. The centre depends entirely on donations and gifts – the café furniture came from a refurbishing Tesco, drinks and papers are funded by donations left on the drinks table and the Kingsgate centre asks no rent. Local United Reformed Minister is Kathryn Price, who convenes the steering group: ‘This is a truly ecumenical venture. Round the table at our last meeting, eight different Christian traditions were repre-sented. It is too early for us to see any changes in our own churches, but we know our volunteers have had some very deep conversations with visitors and our prayer request box is used. We are also developing our own café church on late opening night. The Kingsgate management have asked us to take part in a charity event next spring, a strong indication that they value our presence here. The most common comment people make on coming in is about the sense of peace they feel here.’ Here are churches working together – with the wider community – to put Christ not just at the heart of Christmas, but at the heart of town day after day. This article first appeared in Reform, the journal of the United Re-formed Church.

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Young Church News Members of the Young church invited their friends along to the an-nual Good Friday Happening. After eating some hot cross buns the children made stained glass windows, chicks, Easter bonnet biscuits, cross book marks, Easter cards and decorated eggs complete with Agnes's bonnets! Throughout the morning the children tried to solve clues to a Good Friday quiz and they also helped Gill to make the Easter garden. Before sharing lunch we went up to church to hear the story of the crucifixion where the answers to the quiz were revealed by symbols within the story. The crown of thorns was particularly uncomfortable to wear. After lunch the children and their families gathered around the altar for a short period of reflection and quiet. On Easter Sunday the children shared the end of the Easter story together, played some games and completed an Easter craft. Amaz-ingly the sun shone long enough for an Easter egg hunt in the Church garden that was enjoyed by all who took part. On Sunday 9th May we hope the sun will again shine so that we can meet in the Public park at 11am. Dads are particularly welcome to come and join us that morning. Sheona Wedge

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Decorating the Church for Easter

Thank you to all the Volunteers who helped with the decoration of the church on Saturday 3rd April—many shown in photo above

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Young Church in Church at Good Friday Happening

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Young Church in Church Garden on Easter Day.

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On Easter Day a Eucharist for ‘At Home’ members was held in the Church in the afternoon. Afterwards the congregation enjoyed tea and snacks in the Church Hall—see photo above.

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A Curate for Holy Trinity Curate The Rector writes: I am very pleased to be able to tell you that the details have now been sorted out and agreed and that, from the beginning of July, Val-erie Walker will come to work with us as our Curate. As I explained in the previous issue of the magazine, Valerie will not spend her curacy exclusively with us, but will, rather, be a ‘Diocesan’ Curate. This means that she will spend part of her time with us, part of her time working with St John’s in Alloa, and also be involved in some wider diocesan work where appropriate. It is hoped that this will give her a wider breadth of experience in different aspects of congregational and diocesan life and better equip her for her future ministry. Within that diversity, I will be Valerie’s ‘Training Rector’ and oversee her work and development in all three areas. Valerie’s ordination to the diaconate will take place on Sunday 27 June at the Cathedral in Perth, in the afternoon. I will give you more details nearer the time, but hopefully a good number of us will be able to go to the service both to meet her and to offer her our sup-port. In the meantime, I will ask Valerie to write a few paragraphs about herself for the next edition of this magazine.

Thank You I wish to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for the kind support you have given me over the past month. Many thanks for all the cards, telephone calls and especially visits which made the days pass quicker. My house has been like a flower shop which has been wonderful. All this I do appreciate very much—THANK YOU My love and prayers Sheila

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Mission Action Planning Many of you will know that as part of the new Diocesan Strat-egy adopted at Synod last year, an initiative called ‘Casting the Net’ is being piloted in a number of congregations within the dio-cese, prior to being more gener-

ally rolled out later this year. Holy Trinity wasn’t initially part of the pilot scheme but, because of the hard work of both the Vestry and, particularly, the Mission and Development Group (which has met more than 20 times in the last year) we have now been asked to be-come part of the pilot. Casting the Net is a flexible initiative which encourages congrega-tions to think about their purpose and their calling and to reflect, in a structured way, about both where they are now, and how they might move forwards. In order to provide practical support and relevant resources in a variety of areas for this process, the diocese itself has undergone some significant restructuring. Fundamental to the Casting the Net process are a list of nine criteria called the ‘Nine Marks of Mission’: Worship that renews and inspires; Transformed lives and communities through the good news of Jesus Christ; Lifelong Christian nurture: through lifelong learning and mutual sup-port; Reaching out to children and young people; Rooted in prayer, word and sacrament; The welcome of newcomers and celebration of ‘life events’. Sharing faith by confident and sensitive evangelism; Serving the community in practical ways; Ready to seek growth and to cast the net. At Holy Trinity, the Mission and Development Group has used that list of criteria to help it both to analyse the life of our congregation as

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it is now, and to look for areas of possible development – and a sum-mary of their conclusions will soon be distributed around the congre-gation. However, whilst the work of the Mission and Development Group has been extremely valuable, the Casting the Net process isn’t sim-ply a ‘managerial’ exercise for a small committee, but is, rather, something which is both rooted our spiritual life and faith, and in which the whole congregation should be involved. In short, we want to know what you think about the way things are and what your ideas and hope are for the future development of our mission and ministry. To that end, we are planning a consultation day for Mission, Action and Planning in conjunction with the Diocesan Casting the Net Team. This day will take place in the Viewfield Cenre, Viewfield Ter-race between 10.00 am and 4.00 pm on Saturday 19 June, and will be your opportunity to come along and have your say. The day will be facilitated, jointly by the Vestry/Mission and Develop-ment Group and the Diocesan Casting the Net Team and it is vital that as many members as possible from all different parts of congre-gation come along to give us their thoughts and opinions both about where we are and where we should go. This day will be crucial to our future strategy for growth and development and very much determi-native of our future direction so please make sure you are there, and your voice is heard! To make things easier, a crèche will be available for those who need it and, if you would like to come, but need help with transport, please let me know. In order to help you prepare for this important planning event, the Diocesan Casting the Net team has suggested that as many of us as possible read a very short book by Susan Hope called Mission-shaped Spirituality. I will make sure that a number of these books are available in the Vestibule for borrowing (and returning promptly!) and, if you would like your own copy, they are available from Ama-zon for about £7. The Study and Growth group will also be studying this book at its next 3 or 4 meetings and anyone who would like to join us in that would be most welcome (next meeting Wed 12 May at the home of Linda Brownlie – for more details, speak to the Rector).

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Readings and Readers 9th May Easter 6

Acts 16:9-15

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

John 14:23-29

16th May Sunday after Ascension

Acts 16:16-34

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

John 17:20-26

23rd May Pentecost

Genesis 11:1-9

Romans 8:14-17

John 14:8-27

30th May Trinity Sunday

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

6th June Pentecost 10

1 Kings 17:17-24

Galatians 1:11-24

Luke 7:11-17

The Army of the Lord A friend was in front of me coming out of church one day, and the Rec-tor was standing at the door as he always is to shake hands. He grabbed my friend by the hand and pulled him aside. The Rector said to him, "You need to join the Army of the Lord!" My friend replied, "I'm already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor." Rector questioned, "How come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?" He whispered back, "I'm in the secret service."

My Dad Three boys are in the school playground brag-ging about their fathers. The first boy says, “My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, and they give him £50.” The second boy says, “That's nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, and they give him £100.” The third boy says, '“I’ve got you both beaten. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes four people to collect all the money!'“

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Rotas May

9 8am 11am

Rod Key Hilary Bennison Sabine Forsyth Fay Cuthbertson and Jenny Stooke Mr & Mrs J Waterfield Isobel Thomson & Brendan Grimley

Server Intercessions Server Collection Bread & Wine Chalices

16 8am 11am

Phil Smithard Karen Macdonald Ellen Fearnley Mr & Mrs R Key Jack Wardell & John Macdonald Fay Cuthbertson & Ron Hawkins

Server Intercessions Server Collection Bread & Wine Chalices

23 8am 11am

Phil Smithard Derek Morrison Andrew Wedge Doreen Esnol & Frances Jack Catherine Duncan & Grace Soanes Isobel Thomson & Muriel McKenzie

Server Intercessions Server Collection Bread & Wine Chalices

30 8am 11am

Rod Key Alan Mathewson Sabine Forsyth Isobel Thomson & Muriel McKenzie Helen Dalgity & Winnie Miller Brendan Grimley & Fay Cuthbertson

Server Intercessions Server Collection Bread & Wine Chalices

June 6

8am 11am

Phil Smithard Dorissia Forsyth Rod Key Mr & Mrs P Crabb Joyce Short & Ivy Stewart Ron Hawkins & Muriel McKenzie

Server Intercessions Server Collection Bread & Wine Chalices

Help Needed Would you like to join the Rota for processing with the elements at the 11 O’clock Eucharist. If so please let Brendan, Jack or Ken know and you will be allocated a slot from time to time. They will also be able to answer any questions you might have.

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Secretary Treasurer Lay Rep.

Fay Cuthbertson Peter Hutchings Dr Margaret Dineley

726243 728534

-

Vestry:

People’s Warden Rector’s Warden

Sheona Wedge Malcolm Gosling Linda Sherwood Jenny Stooke Pam Pryde Polly St Aubyn Ken Spink Brendan Grimley

720278 -

416558 -

739039 -

735732 851473

Musical Director Servers Sacristan Flowers Cleaner

Roger Weatherhogg Phil Smithard Frances Jack Gill Wardell Brenda Waterfield

(work) 01592 583473 722416 721683 722948 734309

Young Church Youth Fellowship Dorcas Group Mother’s Union Wives Group Women’s Guild

Sheona Wedge Jenny Stooke Sheila Hawkins Isobel Thomson Fiona Barcroft Doreen Esnol Pamela Grimley Edith Slack

720278 -

725955 624322

- 621054 851473 724552

Traidcraft Sunday Coffee Hall Booking

Linda Sherwood Michelle Fearnley Doreen Esnol Fay Spink Ken Spink

416558 412255 621054 735732 735732

Who’s Who at HOLY TRINITY

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